


Just a Bite (slow updates)

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Aura Bullshit, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author is Out of Ideas, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Consumption of Raw Flesh, No beta- we die like men, Playing Canon Fast and Loose, Wendigo Ruby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-06 20:04:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 7,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17351714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Night is the best time to think. Or to feed.





	1. Hunger Pangs

 

Ruby wanders the halls of Beacon after dark, full of too much pent-up energy to rest, her teeth wearing at her nails, the motion and feeling keeping her occupied.

They couldn’t understand the feeling, the _ache_. The constant hunger. The sudden drooling at the sight of carnage.

Her last had been only a child, hardly enough to satisfy even half of the bottomless pit within.

His bones had creaked so beautifully as he screamed into the bath, her frigid hands seared by his skin-heat. Once he had ceased to suffer, she dragged him out to her father’s shed in the backyard and began her work. Anything she couldn’t eat or repurpose went into the rose bushes that bloomed around the shed, their color enriched by the gore and offal of an extinguished aura.

Her stomach lets out a loud growl and she nearly bites her own finger off in surprise. 

She shouldn’t think about the eaten- she just gets hungrier.

———

The meat locker of the cafeteria is closer to the temperature she prefers, her skin comforted by the chill of the air and the hanging slabs of meat a comfort amongst the darkness, their scent wafting into her nose and filling her mouth with saliva.

She pulls away the self of ‘Rose’ and lets herself out, her fingers elongating into claws and her skin taking on a bluish tint. Her teeth break and grow into fangs of bone as sharp as steak knives and as thick as one of Crescent Rose’s bullets.

Her body elongates and changes, her sensitive spots covering in thick plates of keratin and reinforced with heavy bones. A thick bladed tail grows out with segments of spine.

Fur grows in around her wrists and ankles, insulates her forearms and shins, and covers her breasts- monstrous or not, her Semblance understands modesty and some amount of protection.

Her skull warps and bursts from the skin in a strange hybrid of wolf and deer- some horrendous violation of the Beowulf Alpha’s head- and she sinks her teeth into the closest side of beef, using one huge claw to pull it from the meathook keeping it aloft. 

Bloodshot silver eyes stare into the feast before her as jaws mightier than that of any living thing crush bone into dust and pulp meat. She wags her tail as she gulps down the side in a gluttonous frenzy.

A gasp stalls her train of thought and she whips her head around, coming cursed-visage-to-horrified-face with one of the 3rd years, who’s as pale as freshly driven snow, her eyes as wide as  plates and pupils mere pinpricks.

Ruby is merciful, not giving the Huntress-to-be a chance to scream, impaling her detector through the skull with jagged claws and tearing her head and spine out with a single hard yank.

She wastes no time in delighting in the taste of another living one, making careful cuts and delicate slices into the freshest meat she’s eaten in weeks.

After the flesh is gone, she uses her once-ally’s Scroll to permanently drop her from Beacon enrollment. Hunter academies didn’t look for their ex-attendees, so the girl’s disappearance wouldn’t stand out too sorely.

———

Her ‘glamour’ in place and clothes firmly back on her body, she crawls into bed with a satisfied smile and a bellyful of warm _bakh’olo._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bakh’olo is a author-crafted bastardization of the term _bakolo_ , a cooked human body destined to be consumed, once used by cannibalistic tribes of Fiji before ‘proper colonization’ from the outside world.
> 
> Such consumption is now most likely illegal.


	2. Blood Vector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family, and how it fits into this nonsense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Videocrazy for pointing out _glaring plot holes_!  
> No, seriously. I was gonna cover that stuff in like, 3 chapters, but I’d rather use those as future plot points.

 Yang was a good sister, or at least tried to be. She was there for Ruby anytime she needed a little encouragement, or a hug, or maybe just some advice on how to punch a random jackass.

She hadn’t a damn clue, however, to react to the fact that her sister’s actual semblance was to become a chillingly cannibalistic ghost-demon-thing straight out of Uncle Qrow’s fairy tales. The revelation that her little sister had also hunted, murdered, and most possibly eaten several people was just as upsetting as the original transformation had been.

She had promptly rewon her ‘Best Sister’ title by accepting this as just another of life’s bullshit plot twists and giving her teeth-chatteringly cold sister a warm hug, which was awkwardly returned with arms too long to properly hug back and razorlike nails.

That had been years ago, around her 11th birthday.

Now, she just was used to the occasional bloody scraps of cloth in the treeline and the muffled breaking of bones and tearing of human flesh if she wanders out too far at night.

Ruby snuck her a few ‘steaks’ while Dad was out hunting- they weren’t that bad, if she was honest, even if she was reluctant to try it at first. Her sis damn sure knew how to cook some, heh,  _killer cuts._

(Ruby would probably hate that pun.)

———

“Ruby’s eyes look a little... empty this morning, don’t they?” Blake murmurs to her quietly, trying not to make a big deal of it. Yang grins, delighting in the opportunity to both poke fun at her sister and make one of her patented Yang-brand Puns™.

”Ah, don’t worry about sis. She’ll be back up to normal in no time. Just has days when she _Rose_ on the wrong side of the bed.”

Weiss sighs and buries her head in her hands, too tired for her amazing puns. Blake stares at her dully, although there is some minor amusement in her gaze. Ruby looks at her and grumbles, visible eye glinting with fondness and several good helpings of exasperation.

She just grins- this was her element, and she. _Was_. **_In it!_**

———

Ruby worries about what Dad will think if he finds the tools she’s used to prepare her ‘meat’. Saws, screwdrivers, pliers, and hammers, while durable and useful, aren’t really made for catering to the appetite of a self-admitted monster. 

Bones turn saws into blunted sheets of metal, their teeth blunted and worn away by the core of a living being’s motion. Screwdrivers chip- or even break- from prying joints apart for easier handling. Pliers tear the teeth from human skulls at the cost of losing traction. Hammering at ribcages until they crack so you can get at the succulent organs within usually gives you more splinters than hugging the entirety of a lumber mill.

Half of the money she pocketed from her prey went into ordering new tools. The rest went into either repairing the broken ones or getting them processed into blades for Crescent Rose.

———

Qrow drinks to forget a lot of things- his track record of misfortune is long enough to stretch from the northernmost tip of Atlas to the last centimeter of Vale’s southern edge and then some- but now he drinks to forget what he’s done. 

Ruby had been little more than a rosebud when he unlocked her semblance, but he remembers that night with all the clarity of the unrelenting nightmares that follow him into drunken slumber.

_She smiles and stands in front of his kneeling form excitedly, silver eyes shining. She’s so happy nearly bouncing in place with joy._

_“Am I really gonna get my Semblance, Uncle Qrow?” she asks, looking like he’s just told her that her birthday and the Atlesian Solstice have somehow eclipsed into a super-holiday where she gets triple the cake and presents._ _He just grins at her and reaches out to ruffle her hair._

_“No promises, rosebud. Everyone’s semblances come at different times. Your mom said she didn’t get hers until she was eleven, and right now you’re only six, so I’d say you’ve got some time to go.” She pouts and he pokes her between the eyes, making her giggle again. “But you’ll at least get an Aura, and that’s progress, yeah?”_

_He activates his Aura and feeds tiny bits of it into her soul through where he’s poking her between the eyes, watching with some small pride as her own Aura- as red as her first and last names- begins to grow, sucking up the energy it’s been offered and using it to begin its own production._

_But like with all good things, his luck runs out and things go south- a flicker of misfortune from his Semblance rockets into her soul and cements itself in her core, growing inky-black veins and rooting itself in the very center of her being. He moves his hands away and panic immediately blooms in her eyes._

_“D-did I do something bad?” she whimpers, fragile emotions easy to read on her face. He shakes his head and pulls her in for a hug, hiding his worry about the way her temperature is rapidly dropping behind a shaky facade of confidence._

_”Nah, you’re fine, kid- just wanted to get a better angle, is all,” he murmurs. “don’t worry about it. You’re doing great.”_

_She smiles, and he makes careful note of how her teeth grow into flesh-tearing spikes. Her pupils become a glowing red that cuts through the silver of her eyes and branches into veins that go back into her skull, like some kind of horrible Grimm taint has taken root in her body. He watches her body break and warp into a lanky monstrosity with glacial skin and lethal edges, horns for goring the weak, thick plates of bone or fur covering the only spots that such a thing could be damaged from. Tarlike tattoos spiral up her collar and to the sides of her ‘new head’ and down to her thighs, blossoming roses of silver-red ink growing from them and covering her frame in an unnatural, captivating beauty. The horns atop her head end in glinting points, a crown of sanguine glory to impale those who would deny Her queendom._

_She blinks and looks him over with the eyes of a crazed monster, and he feels his pulse roar to a breakneck pace into his ears. Every little fiber of will in his being strains to withhold the overwhelming instinct that years of hunting has honed in his being. He ignores the way his mind screams for him to cut down the monster in front of him, to rid the world of another beast that would love nothing more than to pry his soul from his chest and eat his cooling body._

_**“Unc...le Qro..w?”** she asks, voice like howling mountain winds that send spears of ice through his core and make his hairs stand on end in stark terror._

_”Y-yeah, kid? What’s up?”_

_**“I’m cold.”** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things I have:  
> a discord (offline#1277)  
> a Twitter (@Knight_Errant13)  
> depression (and the meds for it)  
> crippling social anxiety (and the meds don’t help)
> 
> Things I don’t have:  
> Tumblr (no pr0n= no fun)  
> Facebook (I don’t need my data audited by a lizard)
> 
> Yang has probably grown to like her meat a little more on the red side, seeing as popular lore states that being around a Wendigo a lot will probably end up making you one, too, or at least take on a few of its traits.


	3. Hunting Grounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patch is nothing like Vale. It’s much less... target-rich.  
> It’s quieter, though, and she kinda prefers that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Best kept secrets...

_(Two Months Ago)_

_Ozpin sits down his drink and sighs as he looks up into Qrow’s eyes, chessmaster’s mind spinning at a million miles a second to place a new piece on his board. Qrow fidgets in place, slightly ashamed of his ~~ **plan-** **shattering** **fuckup**~~ little mistake and also drunk out of his own ass._

_“And you’re saying her Semblance didn’t activate? At all?” he asks, incredulous, one of his eyebrows arching upwards. Qrow nods and stumbles a little, mumbling about ‘nothing happened’ and ‘it just didn’t take’._

_(Ozpin is grateful for the flask of Atlesian vodka in his pocket. Some days just take a drink to get through.)_

———

Ruby hums to herself softly as she flips through Weapons Weekly, one of her favorite songs blaring in her headphones.

Right before the song gets to her favorite part and she reaches the high-caliber weapons section of the mag, a man spins her around and demands her Lien, Scroll, and weapon.

She pouts and pulls her headphones off to ask him to say it again, playing dumb for the sake of her counterattack.

“I _said,_  your Lien and Scr-”

**_Splcht._ **

****Ruby muffles a snicker as his head falls off, one of her hands partially transformed so she could use her claws. She quickly scoops up the deadman’s cranium and cracks it open like a can lid using her claw before helping herself to it as she steps out towards the front of the store. The shock and fear on the faces of her meal’s compatriots just makes her hungrier. She turns to the shopkeeper and mutters, “Close your eyes and don't open them, no matter what you hear.”

The man obeys, and she removes the thin veil between ‘fight’ and _slaughter._ One of the gun-wielding men faints, and she laughs, eyes glowing brighter. She flexes her claws and flicks her tail before letting out a proper roar that sends her enemies flying through the window tits-over-teakettle (to quote Yang’s favorite description).

Her tail wraps around the lifeless ankle of her first victim and she clambers out into the street, scooping the unconscious rifleman into her mouth and crushing him to pulp in an instant with massively powerful jaws and muscles. Dust and lead flicker off her hide and she spears one of them through the gut with her tail before smashing the man into the ground so hard the concrete cracks. She scoops up her collected corpses and swallows them whole as the terrified thugs attempt to gun her down. She shudders at the taste of cloth and leather.

She grabs another by his legs and shoulders before tearing him in half and using him as an improvised projectile weapon to knock his compatriots on their asses.

 **“ _I_ _usually_** _**only get to eat the mask-wearing ones that show up in boats... they’re a little more gamey than you guys are, but that’s good... having just one flavor’s the death of a good dish...”**_

She makes quick work of any who get too close to her, beating them into unconsciousness or butchering them.

Gingerdouche Man tries to blow her up with a dust crystal. She knocks him out with an easy backhand that breaks his jaw. Before she can help herself to his meat, a large rock slams into the side of her head, making her screech in surprise and pain. A weird blonde lady with a whip is striding at her angrily. She grabs Ginger’s hat as she makes like a tree and gets the fuck outta there.

She scoops up the lion's share of her spoils and speeds away into the underbelly of Vale, making sure to strip her meals down- clothing and weapons give her awful indigestion, and don't exactly feel too nice going in- before tucking into her tiny buffet with a satisfied huff.

———

Yang looks around the bar she’s just stepped into and sighs, noticing several people who she’s had... disagreements... with in the past. She ducks into a corner and calls Ruby. The phone rings once before connecting, heavy breathing- far too heavy to be Ruby’s, but perfectly alien enough to be in accordance with her ‘morph’ form- echoes back into her ear.

“Hey, Ruby,” she begins, smiling a little as she thinks about the shitstorm she’s about to unleash, “I’m at that nightclub I showed you on the CCTnet. I’m in, uh, a bit of trouble, and could _maaaaaaybe_ use a little supernatural support?”

Ruby huffs in what is most likely disappointment, and the call ends. Yang grins and steps into the bar properly, confident that her little big sister will save her ass if things get too hot. She punches twice, Ember Celica sliding properly into place on her wrists and hands.

She rolls out her joints and walks over to the bar.

———

Ruby- still “goed out’- watches through the skylight as Yang makes a mess of the nightclub below. She gets bored with watching when the bartender pulls a fucking rocket launcher, shatters the skylight, and drops down to protect her sister.

———

Yang cheers when Ruby slams down from above and tail-slaps a missile away before picking her up- like a mother cat picks up her kitten, adorably- then hopping back out the skylight and charging off into the night after handing her a sick-looking black bowler hat with a red stripe on it.

Luckily, they only get yelled at by Dad when they come home late for, y’know, being late- and worrying him by proxy. His ire is soothed by Ruby’s offering of several nice black and red suits, with matching shades and hats.

Yang has a kickass new hat now, and Ruby’s got a few new guns to tool around with in her ‘workshop’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruby (in human form): 5’2, 110 lbs  
> (weight 99-121 lbs on average by height, going with 110 because she probably is fit as fuck and never skips out on leg day- in other words: lean muscle as fuck)
> 
> Ruby (Wendigo morph): 15’0, 375 lbs  
> (weight and height for wendigoes is speculative at best, although best guess is ranging from 7-15 feet and up to 500 lbs, thanks Demon Hunter wiki- ruby is a precious) 
> 
> I’m going to say her rack- horns, not breasteseses, you perv- is a 12 pointer. Lots of pointy bits for the stabbing, etc. Her tail is about 8-10 feet long, since it’s still a balance for her kickass wendigo body. She can xenomorph it about, because FUCK YOU THIS IS MY FIC.  
> I’m considering her having some kind of ice breath or spike projectile weapon, but it’s a little much for an already OP legendary creature.
> 
> EDIT: morph height changed for plot reasons
> 
> Also, thank you for reading.


	4. Paladin Pugilism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rock ‘em-Sock ‘em Robots is less fun like this, it’s too meaty.  
> Gross.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this stays according to canon until episode 2-4, which is the only real divergence that I can really say happens. From there, Hell is properly unleashed.

The Paladin slams down into the concrete of the underpass with a horrendous, metallic ‘krunch’. It stands back up as team RWBY regathers and prepares to take it offline for good, weapons at the ready. Ruby and Yang share a look that their teammates can’t place.

_When they were much younger, Yang and Ruby had made a show of using it in public, with Yang mumbling gibberish and waving her arms madly as Ruby transformed- it was quite the sight, as the townsfolk would come to say. In exchange for Ruby going on near-nightly Grimm culls and otherwise using her giant monster form for the common interest, she was allowed the consumption of criminals and the dead- provided the family of the dead consented, of course._

_The mumbling of gibberish went away gradually, replaced by a simple command of “Go.” or “Sic ‘em.” It was also a cool block party trick._

Yang grins at her sister, points at the giant machine, and utters a mere two words: 

**“Sic ‘em.”**

Ruby remembers her part of the farce well and clutches her head as she begins to change, whimpering and generally being a bellyacher about the whole deal, eventually bubbling over with Auric energy and exploding into her other form with a deafening wail. Blake seems to blue-screen, Weiss stumbles back in shock, and Yang grins as Ruby charges with her horns forwards, punching 12 holes into the armatures and main chassis of the Paladin. 

The giant machine-beast combo slam into a concrete pillar and Ruby slashes into the torso of the megamachine, lubricants and sparks gushing out in a spectacular display. The Paladin’s rocket pods flip over into a more advantageous position (who’dve thought) and embeds three missiles into the fluff of Ruby’s chest and send her back into another pillar on a plume of gross burnt hair-scented smoke. 

She shakes herself off and charges at it again, fully planning to try and gore it again, but it catches on and grabs her antlers, barely holding her back, pumping AP ammo into anything it can reach. The bullets leave nicks and shallow dents, but cannot find purchase enough to spiral into her form.

———

Roman growls from within the machine, seeing a red that’s redder than his hair.

“You’re the bitch who killed my borrowed men and stole my fucking hat!”

He figures out how to close the fists and slams the buttons down as he makes the machine lurch to the side.

———

Ruby wails in agony as her antlers are broken by the force of the grip on them and tries to shake them free. Blood gushes from her neck as the machine keeps yanking, eventually prying away the whole exo-skull and throwing it aside. She staggers back, clutching a defenseless, ravaged endoskeletal skull and trying to protect it. 

Yang roars in fury, burning like a supernova. She darts past her sister with enough force to stagger her and slams into the Paladin, denting in the cockpit and trapping Roman inside. She tears off one of the arms herself and throws it into the bay before retreating to her sister’s side.

Ruby lets out a soul-guttering wail and reveals her new skull- one more wolflike in structure, with fresh ears where the antlers used to connect. She shakes her head as bone surfaces through her skin and makes armor on her hands and forearms, her claws capping in Grimmlike bone as well. She charges again, large spikes of bone bursting through her back like the defenses of an Ursa Major.

**|||**

_Ruby always felt strange after killing a Grimm in her Wendigo form, watching the black mist in the air. Something felt wrong about it, like some kind of cruelty was being inflicted on the creatures by ending them. She couldn’t see it, but the mist coiled into her as she strode by, sinking into her core and providing new strength to the monster within._

_Eventually, that feeling of wrongness followed her out into her normal body, each Grimm feeling like a little papercut on her soul, with it feeling the least about Beowolves, prompting her to kill them the most._

**|||**

Ruby slams her claws into the torso of the machine and wrenches it’s legs away, the twin stomping machines clattering beneath it as it falls. She grabs the other arm, breaks it backwards, and tears it away as well, tossing it aside and screaming her victory to the heavens above as mechanical fluids pool beneath her. She wrenches the cockpit away from the machine and hurtles it into another pillar, busting it in half and sending a dazed Roman flying into the ground. 

As he tries to stand, Yang is already there, eyes glowing like dying stars. She punches him in the stomach so hard that he throws up blood and is lifted about five feet from the ground. 

He doesn’t get the chance to hit it again, massive jaws closing around his head and crushing it into pulp. Ruby cuts the rest of his clothes away and swallows him down before staggering a few steps and collapsing, quickly reverting to her normal form.

Yang cradles her in her arms and mutters apologies to her sister’s prone form. Blake and Weiss both take cautious steps forwards, eventually coming face-to-face with a new revelation that causes them to gasp-

Ruby is now a bearer to two fluffy blue-grey wolf ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wendigo yet persists, augmented by Grimm might. Carriers of such a curse are slowly changed into the beast they contain- prisoner and prison become one.  
> ...But carrying the blood of Warriors will surely change things, yes?
> 
> Enough ramblings. Chapter 5 needs drafting.
> 
> (Side note, Ruby looks nice as a Faunus and you can fucking fight me.)  
> (Edit: I don’t even know what I was thinking, but whatever, I guess it works.)


	5. Fable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Creation

_When the world was young,_

_the darkness found no halting force but Dust._

_There were those amongst the living who became darkened by battle after battle,_

_their souls became bitter-cold with hate._

_They saw the purity amongst the others, the innocence that they carried,_

_and could only **h u n g e r .**_

_The dark god called them by degrees_

_to feed on the young and old alike,_

_to drink the weak and grow mighty._

_Their bodies could not contain what they became,_

_and from them were born new monsters._

_The Wyvern, a massive drake made from a young woman with her purity corrupted by sins,_

_Gheistholme, a suit of armor from whence all of that heathen ilk would spring,_

_the Harvestman, wielding a long scythe amongst withered crops,_

_**and the** _ **_Wendigo, trapped deep in ice, begging to be warm again._ **

_Mankind and Faunus alike waged war on the monsters made from their blood,_

_but could not halt them, their powers too great._

_Cunning became their power, and each was sealed._

_The Wyvern was carved into the skin of a murderer and locked deep beneath the grand forests_

_Geistholme was sealed in searing sands and left to bake_

_The Harvestman shattered into four and implanted in the pregnant bodies of four women, damning their children forever_

_**and** **those** **afflicted** **by** **the** **Wendigo** **were** **forced** **deep beneath the ice and snow, to shiver amongst the Dust too hard for pick and shovel to break.**_

 

_Geistholme would not rest as his brethren did, refusing to stay asleep_

_his fitful dreams carried him onto another land_

_black tar grew where his form rested, summoning the Blighted he once drove into extinction_

_and he was slain by a spear of light from above, body shattering into brilliant crystals that dotted the land._

_His last breath corrupted the skies above his tomb,_

_bringing his spawns to life_

_and all was returned to unending war._


	6. Opening Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What does one see in silver?

_An old wive’s tale amongst the Faunus:_ _the Cold Tongue_

 

_Long before we had won our freedom from mankind,_

_and before our war for freedom,_

_there was a child and the ice_

_He was lost amongst the Dust his captors had demanded he mine,_

_freezing to death and starved into delirium,_

_he heard a strange voice amongst the icicles._

_**O sweet child, warm and living, why do you cry so?** _

 

_Because I am going to die, he said,_

_because my mother and father shall never grace my eyes again_

_and my ghost shall be tethered deep beneath,_

_where no warm sun can make me whole._

_The voice opened a path in the ice_

_up into sunlight._

_**Give me some of your life, and I will free us both.** _

 

_He bit off a finger and threw it into the deep dark below, and he was carried up on a gust of wailing winds to the surface_

_he told of the voice of cold and its trade_

_and Faunus would go down to ask questions_

_but nothing would reply._

_He took the faithful down and split the belly of a human_

_their last day spent in the torturous cold our kind toiled in_

_and the voice spoke gleefully_

_**This pleases me, bring me another and be rewarded.** _

 

_he split his own belly and had faithful ones cast him into the dark below_

_and their bodies changed_

_their souls igniting_

_giving them the human’s advantage:_

_an untethered soul, capable of shaping reality with powers_

_whether they carried some re **semblance** to the natural order or were beasts all their own_

_the war began, and freedom’s cry was first heard in the cold depths of the mines_

_———_

Ruby gasps awake in Yang’s arms, silver eyes snapping open, and she’s immediately smashed into Yang’s breasts for a suffocating hug. The warmth is nice, and she curls into her sister’s heated form with a soft sigh. The night is quickly over, and RWBY returns to their dorm. 

———

Yang sleeps in Ruby’s bed, noticing how her sister clung to her for warmth and the somehow even-more-than-unnatural paleness of her sister’s skin. She cuddles her adorable little Faunus (Maybe? Blake never got to her on that...) sister for all she is worth, easily falling asleep amongst Ruby’s giant collection of fluffy winter blankets. She doesn’t overheat under all eight or nine of ‘em since she has a living cooler right next to her in bed.

She’s still the best sister, hands down (at least in her own opinion). Eat it, universe.

———


	7. Cat’s Eye Topaz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gemstones and their uses.

Blake is careful to watch over Ruby after her strange shift in body, helping her to move around and adjust to her majorly advanced vision, smell, and hearing. As she helps her team leader return to full ‘fighting-fit’, she learns about Ruby. 

Oddly enough, the entire reason Ruby was taken into Beacon was because the Headmaster  _specifically asked for her._ She had been attending Signal Academy on her home island of Patch when she was told her next semester would be taken in Vale, just in time for Yang’s early graduation (also due to a meddling headmaster, she suspected) and their father’s return to Patch after a long hunt. 

Ruby was always this cold, like a glass of icewater on a summer’s day. She could go out into the snow without any clothes whatsoever and never even catch the barest hint of a sniffle. She often stayed inside during summer- heat sucked the energy right out of her body, making her lethargic- but she was getting better about managing the heat due to her rather thick hood and the blankets.

(When Ruby wasn’t paying attention, Blake would sniff her bedding in an attempt to figure out what kind of Faunus she was. No such luck, though. All her blankets and pillows- and even her nightclothes- are simply scented like snowy mountain pine trees and the faintest hint of roses.)

(She feels a little bad about that part, actually.)

———

Ruby’s return to the active population of Beacon is met with some confusion- she hadn’t been a Faunus before her illness, had she? Rumors spread of a White Fang spy with a Semblance that could make you into a Faunus, as well as any number of other maddening possibilities. 

Cardin Winchester attempts to pick on her, and is promptly roflstomped by both a pissed-off Yang and a silently brooding Blake, although in vastly different ways.

Yang just smashed his head into a table until he was concussed, and Blake tripped him on his way to the infirmary.

(Down a flight of stairs.)

———


	8. Alternate Universe: Reaping the Field

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if?

Ruby’s orchard grows stronger with each dead being in its soil, plants long-dead yet somehow growing tall.

Scarecrows made from bleached human skins are stuffed with straw and hung up to keep away birds. 

The wells and rivers run red with lost life, and Patch isn’t capable of supporting any life but one.

She watches from beneath the brim of her straw hat as Grimm grow, come for her crops, and are rent apart by that which they sought to destroy.

She didn’t manage to snag her first two pests, though- they fled as she was becoming whole.

The frozen north sends machines to cull her crops, and their bodies are taken back into the earth from whence they were mined.

She runs her fingers through the fur of a plump spectral tabbycat, smiling slightly as it purrs.

“The harvest comes along nicely this year, eh Mittens?”

The cat meows, although not in agreement or disapproval, simply stating a fact.

”True, true... they’ll come around. If not, the crops could always use more fertilizer...”

She looks over at the grinding wheel and her scythe- harvest time was going to be here soon.


	9. Alternate Universe: Cold as Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She wasn’t supposed to come back.

Ruby dies during her fight with Roman beneath Mountain Glenn, body riddled with bullets. 

As she dies and her eyes lose their light, she makes a deal with that which should not be.

The Grimm feel it collectively, warbling wails echoing across the face of Remnant. 

Hundreds of thousands of Grimm are snuffed by candles, their smoke burrowing into the ground and traveling to her cooling body, twisting and molding themselves into a body suitable to hold the Wendigo’s ungodly hunger.

She explodes in a shower of gore, the First to Fall rising from its primeval tomb, silver eyes twitching madly in tens of eye sockets, finally whole after so long.

It screams and the tunnels rattle, filling with permafrost and icicles as its domain reestablishes amongst warmth.

It lunges, body tearing and reforming as the essence of all hunger exerts its might.

Mountain Glenn explodes into a massive glacier, the air of Vale choked by an unending blizzard. 

Night falls but doesn’t lift, and the Wendigo feeds on the succulent living.

———

Yang is twisted over time into a creature like her sister, hungering for flesh and relentless in its pursuit.

With each hit, she grows more powerful, her mane exploding into flames so cold they blacken flesh into charcoal.

(Others who Ruby favored also twist- the Wendigo would keep those the martyr loved safe, would honor the last wish of a dying one who gave instead of forcing it to take.)


	10. Eating (with) Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch happens sometimes.

Lunch is usually the time of day in which people can briefly relax and have a meal- one often of lower quality than breakfast or dinner- before they hit the ground running in the last push before the day ends. 

It isn’t any different for those in Beacon’s roll, of course. An hour is put aside from the day for such a meal- or at least to give the walking stress bombs that call themselves adolescent humans and Faunus a temporary defusal, anyways.

Ruby watches the microwave rotate an ominous container of red-pink meat, the scent of whatever she’s eating wafting through the cafeteria. Sensitive Faunus noses can’t quite place the scent, and a few of them come to ask her what it is.

———

Ruby looks over to a rabbit-eared girl who skittishly meets her eyes and offers a hesitant smile. Ruby smiles back, her canines glinting in the low lights near the microwave area- which is kept darker both to cater to those with light sensitivities and so you can see the timers better- and offers a hand to shake. It’s taken and she’s treated to a surprisingly firm handshake. 

Ruby smiles a little wider. “Firm grip like that suits you, I’d say- going fast means you gotta have a grip on your gear. I’m guessing you’re some manner of knife-wielder, miss..?”

The bunny lass blushes, pale skin darkening a little.

”Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina. It’s a pleasure to meet you, uhm..?”

“Ruby Rose, but just call me Ruby. The pleasure’s all mine.” she states softly, eyes going back to the microwave. Velvet looks at it in confusion. 

“Mind if I ask what you’ve got, Ruby? None of the Faunus in here have a clue, and it’s kinda picking at our brains.”

Ruby chuckles. “Pig. Just a little cut off something I snatched up in Vale last night. Probably not used to the scent ‘cause of the brine- it’s real bitter, but it makes pork nice and tender with no real loss of flavor, and takes off the normal  _long pig_ cook time.”

Velvet nods, understanding, ears twitching a little. “Makes sense. Does the brine go well on anything else?”

Ruby’s grin brightens and her ears perk. “Everything. Just gotta read the back of the bottle, an’ all.”

———

Ruby retrieves a small bottle of ‘Dave’s Old Style Seasonin’ Sauce’ and presents it to her. It’s gracefully slipped into a pocket and Velvet returns with it to a small group of Faunus, each of which have left their teams to create a sort of Faunus Council table. The sauce is passed around, inspected, and pored over, several of them applying it to their own meals, and then returned to Velvet. Based on the pleased lilt to their voices, it’s pretty good.

She smiles, pleased with her introduction of a family favorite to others, and returns to her table with the strange container of meat- which hasn’t browned at all, somehow- and tucks into it.

Blake asks what it is, and Ruby explains. 

“Okay, so y’know how some animals have white and dark meat? The butcher that sold it to me said it was some of the rarer stuff on a pig. The, ah, how’d he put it... OH, yeah! The _‘other other white meat.’_

Blake isn’t _stupid_. She gets the reference. “Are you.. really? **Here?** ”

Yang muffles a snicker and Ruby just winks. Weiss is at another table, talking up some bluenette from Vacuo.

“Fine. Give me a chunk, then.” she half-demands-half-asks, holding out a hand. When all she gets is two shocked looks, she huffs indignantly. “What? You’re clearly risking a lot over it, so it must be good- that’s not even to mention the secrets you’ve kept for me and what information of yours I’ve been privy to, so I might as well return the favor. Hand it over.”

Yang fucking loses it and falls off the weird bench-thing that the tables have from laughing so hard.

Ruby shrugs and places a small chunk into her hand. Blake looks down at the seemingly innocuous meat and studies it for a few moments, noting small details about the texture and musculature of it, and then pops it into her mouth. 

As she chews on it, she makes several faces, mostly of contemplation, some of delight- and a few of what can’t _quite_ be called regret, but are indeed well on their way to that- before swallowing it down and taking a drink of her water. 

“I’ve had worse. Not too bad, but could use salt,” she murmurs. “Can you get it to at _least_ medium-well next time you offer me some? I’m a bit adverse to raw meat.” 

She blinks. “Provided you offer me some, that is. I pushed the envelope this time, I think.”

Ruby just nods, and Yang’s cackling only grows in volume and tempo, her face nearly as red as Ruby’s cloak.


	11. Growling Stomach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feeding is often a loud, messy process, and it’s often quite time-consuming.  
> As such, potential Wendigoes must plan feedings amongst heavy non-Wendigo populations very, very carefully.

Ruby lays on the floor of her dorm room, whimpering softly and trying her best not to let herself shift- if she turned now, there would be no way to prevent her hunger from claiming a sizable tithe of innocent people. Her stomach growls like a roiling storm and she curls up tighter, ears flattening against her head. 

Yang had taken Blake and Weiss out of the room, knowing all too well that they would be on the menu if they stayed in her company while she was this hungry and this desperate to eat. Ruby doesn’t blame them, though- far from it, actually. She would want to get away from them before such needs overtook her.

-

The door makes absolutely horrid noises, sparking a little as if someone’s hacking the electronic lock.

Instinct screams out to defend what’s hers and Ruby’s claws force themselves out, her nails growing long and thick, skin paling and turning the faintest shade more blue. She clutches the sides of her head and whimpers as her vision bleeds from chromatic to infrared and her sense of smell sharpens by thousands of times. 

Her molars grow sharp points, canines become full-on fangs, and incisors become as pointed as canines- good, she’s still mostly in control- and she pulls her hood over her head before whoever it is busts in, the door hissing and sputtering as it’s forced aside by strength as opposed to technology.

“Hey, freak.” Cardin growls out, hefting his mace, the rest of his team armed and at his back, “Hope you were prepared for a beating.” 

Ruby is faintly glad that she’s going to end them. People like Winchester don’t deserve to be giant fucking dicks for no reason other than ‘I’m a Hunter’s kid. I’m special.’ She stands up and flexes her half-awoken claws before turning and lunging at them, eyes blank save for wild rage and endless hunger.

———

Pyrrha is returning to Team JNPR’s dorm room when she notices three things: the scent of blood, the sound of bone breaking and flesh being torn, and her sudden desire to simultaneously never move again and run screaming back to Mistral. She steels herself and creeps into the open Team RWBY dorm, ready for anything.

The door unfucks itself and closes.

 Pyrrha decides that no, she is _not ready._

_———_

“You’re _telling_ me, and I heard you _correctly_ say that turning into a cannibalistic super-monster is your **semblance?!** ” Pyrrha nearly screeches at a very nervous and scared-looking Ruby, who is held in a corner with a disassembled Crescent Rose’s blades magnetically pressed to her throat and chest.

”Y-yes?” Ruby squeaks, eyes wide and face obviously full of distress- the door busts down and Yang thunders in with Ember Celica primed, Weiss and Blake close behind and equally combat ready.

**_“What the FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!”_ **


	12. Dreamscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendigoes, and the like. 
> 
> Apparently I’m half-unabandoning this fic.
> 
> Thanks, commenter who doesn’t have an AO3 account.

Ruby strides through the wailing winds, snow and ice whipping around her as she wanders the ancient, blizzard-choked city. She isn’t wearing anything other than her sleep pants and a sports bra, but the cold is nothing to her. It feels like home. She wanders for what feels like miles before coming to sit on the warm ground next to a massive bonfire.

Nestled within the bonfire is the spirit of the Wendigo, the heat of the bonfire keeping it comfortable. One eye opens and it looks over her, eyes emotionless other than a few sparks of interest.

**“...Rose. I presume you have come to chat though the flames?”**

She nods mutely, not sure of how to string words together in front of this ancient being.

**“Hm. What is it you want to speak of?”**

She asks her only current question: “Can I free you from me? Is there some way to let you be out in the world without someone to contain you?”

It huffs and shakes its head.

**“I have been contained for so long that I am unable to take a form of my own anymore. Your flesh is as close that I will ever taste of the freedom of my youth again. My sibling Fallen are the same, though Gheistholme may be capable of reforming and becoming one with a new suit of armor... provided his soul can be tethered.”**

Ruby picks up and tosses a frozen chunk of human arm into the flames, and her companion snaps it up. 

“And can you ever change bodies, or?”

It nods.

**“The body I was banished in was originally Wyvern’s flesh form, before her molt and the final stages of her Fall. Brother Azhek’s fragments still pass between the ‘Maidens’ as Time weathers them down to bones. It is possible that I may do the same, but there are a few rules that we have experienced.**

**Host and spirit must part amicably, or any changes our forms took will be permanent.”**

It gestures to the roses tattooed into its body, and then reaches through the flames to rub an animal ear between clawed finger and thumb.

**“These, for instance. They are permutations from our bond.”**

Ruby mumbles softly.

**“...you want to keep the ears?”**

She nods, blushing a little, and mumbles more.

**“They will stay, if or when we part. Consider them a boon for feeding me more than the last one did.”**

“...last one?”

It chuckles.

**“An Atlesian woman. Her stance on meat was what could be described as ‘furiously vegan’. It was... unpleasant. I still cannot stand the taste of squash.”**

It shudders after saying the word ‘squash’ and shakes its head around. 

Ruby thinks for a moment and then has an idea.

“Oh! Could you pull the rest of my team in here to see if they want to be your host?”

It’s eye glows like a dying star and her teammates fall out of the infinite blizzard above, faceplanting in the snow- the cold clearly doesn’t agree with them, and they all scramble towards the flames. 

Blake stares into the flames in both awe and fear, Yang just narrows her eyes at the creature within the raging inferno before crossing her arms, and Weiss looks very, very confused.

**“Your esteemed leader wished to introduce us to each other. Well met.”**

Blake settles, Yang grins, and Weiss continues to look very confused.

Ruby begins by zooming over and hugging the hell out of all three before introducing her spirit.

“Okay, so this is Rezanh, and he used to fight the Grimm before there were even Grimm to exist! What did you call them again, Rez?”

‘Rez’ rolls his giant eye and adjusts his position a little.

**“We called them the Blighted. They were animals tainted by the Dark God, and they acted just as your Grimm creatures do. Your ‘Beowolf’ creatures, for example- those used to be actual wolves, and the Dark God twisted them into his personal horde of war animals.”**

“Yeah, so I wanted to see if you guys would be interested in being his container instead of me.”

Yang instantly declines. “Nope. Not interested in eating people and headbutting giant robots, _thanks._ ”

Blake just looks over to Weiss, hoping that the second most vocal person in the group would have a response first.

Weiss sighs and holds a hand out to the flames, clearly intrigued by this offer (and willing to experiment).

“Fine. But I am _not_ interested in being a Faunus or eating people raw. I am a lady with standards, and you’ll treat me as such- that means you listen to me when I talk and you do what I tell you to, got it?”

Rezanh chuckles and reaches out one huge claw as well, gently letting her hold his massive hand.

**“It’s rather ironic... a creature released by your great-grandfather’s greed, re-caged nearly a century later in yet another child of that cold-blooded line...”**

The blizzard roars around them as the link between Rose and beast unwinds, settles for a moment as the bond ends, and picks back up in a screaming white cacophony of glacial chill. Mountains of ice harder than stone grow in the distance and the scenery changes- a desolate, frozen Vale becomes an ice-entombed Atlas.

Weiss’ skin tinges blue slightly, and her eyes are rimmed in the glow of Cherenkov blue. She looks down at her hands and watches her nails sharpen slightly. She looks back up at Rezanh, unimpressed, and arches an eyebrow.

“This is all you can offer me? What of that transformation Ruby underwent?”

Rezanh huffs at her, his bonfire extinguishing and disappearing, runes scrawling across his throat and wrists and ringing the cherry-red pupils of his eyes.

**“Your ability to summon creatures will be form enough for me. I shall assist you in that way,”** he snickers, giving her a polite bow that _reeks_ of sarcasm,  **“my Lady Schnee.”**

Weiss scoffs and then smiles slightly. “You’re just as bad as those three, you cretin. Just call me Weiss- we’re going to be attached to each other for awhile, so we might as well get along.”

Ruby shivers, blinks, and then cheers. “OHMYGODICANFEELTHECOLD!”

Yang picks up her little sister and hugs her wholeheartedly, accidentally popping Ruby’s spine- which makes a noise like firecrackers- and spinning her around for a moment. “Heh, welcome back to not needing eighty-five billion blankets, sis.”

Ruby rushes over and hugs Weiss, who allows this with a small blush growing on her face, which Blake and Yang both can’t help but notice.

Blake grumbles and Yang grins. They might’ve been betting about who Weiss liked.


End file.
